Lachrymæ Musarum Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABACDDCAACA EFGEFGHIHIH JJKKKLKLMEKL JNNJNJNJJN IOIOJJJJPGGP BQQQRSJSJTJJTTJDAAGD BGAADGGD UUQQQVVWWXOOXOJOJYYZ A2A2ZA2ZA2 B2B2NB2NA2PA2PC2QC2Q QC2D2D2JKJK

Low like another's lies the laurelled headA
The life that seemed a perfect song is o'erB
Carry the last great bard to his last bedA
Land that he loved thy noblest voice is muteC
Land that he loved that loved him nevermoreD
Meadow of thine smooth lawn or wild sea shoreD
Gardens of odorous bloom and tremulous fruitC
Or woodlands old like Druid couches spreadA
The master's feet shall treadA
Death's little rift hath rent the faultless luteC
The singer of undying songs is deadA
-
Lo in this season pensive hued and graveE
While fades and falls the doomed reluctant leafF
From withered Earth's fantastic coronalG
With wandering sighs of forest and of waveE
Mingles the murmur of a people's griefF
For him whose leaf shall fade not neither fallG
He hath fared forth beyond these suns and showersH
For us the autumn glow the autumn flameI
And soon the winter silence shall be oursH
Him the eternal spring of fadeless fameI
Crowns with no mortal flowersH
-
Rapt though he be from usJ
Virgil salutes him and TheocritusJ
Catullus mightiest brained Lucretius eachK
Greets him their brother on the Stygian beachK
Proudly a gaunt right hand doth Dante reachK
Milton and Wordsworth bid him welcome homeL
Bright Keats to touch his raiment doth beseechK
Coleridge his locks aspersed with fairy foamL
Calm Spenser Chaucer suaveM
His equal friendship craveE
And godlike spirits hail him guest in speechK
Of Athens Florence Weimar Stratford RomeL
-
What needs his laurel our ephemeral tearsJ
To save from visitation of decayN
Not in this temporal sunlight now that bayN
Blooms nor to perishable mundane earsJ
Sings he with lips of transitory clayN
For he hath joined the chorus of his peersJ
In habitations of the perfect dayN
His earthly notes a heavenly audience hearsJ
And more melodious are henceforth the spheresJ
Enriched with music stol'n from earth awayN
-
He hath returned to regions whence he cameI
Him doth the spirit divineO
Of universal loveliness reclaimI
All nature is his shrineO
Seek him henceforward in the wind and seaJ
In earth's and air's emotion or reposeJ
In every star's august serenityJ
And in the rapture of the flaming roseJ
There seek him if ye would not seek in vainP
There in the rhythm and music of the WholeG
Yea and for ever in the human soulG
Made stronger and more beauteous by his strainP
-
For lo creation's self is one great choirB
And what is nature's order but the rhymeQ
Whereto the worlds keep timeQ
And all things move with all things from their primeQ
Who shall expound the mystery of the lyreR
In far retreats of elemental mindS
Obscurely comes and goesJ
The imperative breath of song that as the windS
Is trackless and oblivious whence it blowsJ
Demand of lilies wherefore they are whiteT
Extort her crimson secret from the roseJ
But ask not of the Muse that she discloseJ
The meaning of the riddle of her mightT
Somewhat of all things sealed and reconditeT
Save the enigma of herself she knowsJ
The master could not tell with all his loreD
Wherefore he sang or whence the mandate spedA
Ev'n as the linnet sings so I he saidA
Ah rather as the imperial nightingaleG
That held in trance the ancient Attic shoreD
And charms the ages with the notes that o'erB
All woodland chants immortally prevailG
And now from our vain plaudits greatly fledA
He with diviner silence dwells insteadA
And on no earthly sea with transient roarD
Unto no earthly airs he trims his sailG
But far beyond our vision and our hailG
Is heard for ever and is seen no moreD
-
No more O never nowU
Lord of the lofty and the tranquil browU
Whereon nor snows of timeQ
Have fall'n nor wintry rimeQ
Shall men behold thee sage and mage sublimeQ
Once in his youth obscureV
The maker of this verse which shall endureV
By splendour of its theme that cannot dieW
Beheld thee eye to eyeW
And touched through thee the handX
Of every hero of thy race divineO
Ev'n to the sire of all the laurelled lineO
The sightless wanderer on the Ionian strandX
With soul as healthful as the poignant brineO
Wide as his skies and radiant as his seasJ
Starry from haunts of his Familiars nineO
Glorious M onidesJ
Yea I beheld thee and behold thee yetY
Thou hast forgotten but can I forgetY
The accents of thy pure and sovereign tongueZ
Are they not ever goldenly impressedA2
On memory's palimpsestA2
I see the wizard locks like night that hungZ
I tread the floor thy hallowing feet have trodA2
I see the hands a nation's lyre that strungZ
The eyes that looked through life and gazed on GodA2
-
The seasons change the winds they shift and veerB2
The grass of yesteryearB2
Is dead the birds depart the groves decayN
Empires dissolve and peoples disappearB2
Song passes not awayN
Captains and conquerors leave a little dustA2
And kings a dubious legend of their reignP
The swords of C sars they are less than rustA2
The poet doth remainP
Dead is Augustus Maro is aliveC2
And thou the Mantuan of our age and climeQ
Like Virgil shalt thy race and tongue surviveC2
Bequeathing no less honeyed words to timeQ
Embalmed in amber of eternal rhymeQ
And rich with sweets from every Muse's hiveC2
While to the measure of the cosmic runeD2
For purer ears thou shalt thy lyre attuneD2
And heed no more the hum of idle praiseJ
In that great calm our tumults cannot reachK
Master who crown'st our immelodious daysJ
With flower of perfect speechK

William Watson



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